The present invention relates to a device for inserting or implanting a solid or semi-solid drug or cell delivery implant subcutaneously, interstitially or intramuscularly. More particularly, the invention relates to a device for loading a solution, suspension, a flowable phase or a solid into a delivery implant at the time of use followed by implantation of the implant under the surface of the skin or within the muscle of a human or animal.
Implantation of medical devices is a widely accepted medical procedure to deliver medicaments, such as pharmaceutical agents and bioactive compounds, for treatment of disease in humans and other species. Many types of medicaments have been delivered as implants, including hormones for reproductive control, vaccines, and antibiotics. In more recent technologies, the implantable composition has contained the medicament in a biologically compatible adsorbing polymer matrix. However, these compositions are prepared prior to use and suffer from the inherent problems presented by processing a polymer with a medicament. These difficulties include the use of complex processing techniques to avoid degrading the active agent in the medicament and concerns about the shelf-life of the polymer/medicament composition after processing and compatibility/reactivity between the medicament and the polymer. For example, an aqueous based medicament will degrade a biodegradeable polymer implant.
While the prior art is replete with various medicament implants, e.g., in pelletized form, as well as, various apparatus for loading and introducing such implants into the body of a living creature, it does not adequately address the above stated concerns by providing a simple medicinal implant loading and injecting mechanism that maximally preserves the medicament from degradation during the processing/formation of the implant, (which may, e.g., involve high temperatures, such as during injection molding, exposure to radiation during curing and/or sterilization) nor from degradation due to chemical reaction with the material of the implant during processing and/or storage prior to use.
The problems and disadvantages associated with the conventional techniques and devices utilized to prepare and inject medicinal implants are overcome by the present invention which includes a system for implanting medicinal implants into the body of a living creature. The system has an injector body with a first lumen therein and a plunger slideable within the first lumen between a retracted position and a deployed position. A needle having a second lumen therein is coupled to the injector body with the second lumen communicating with the first lumen. An injectable implant having an internal hollow is positionable within at least one of the first and second lumens with the hollow communicating with the first lumen. A medicament is at least partially storable within the first lumen when the plunger is in the retracted position. The internal hollow of the injectable implant receives at least a portion of the medicament when the plunger is moved from the retracted position to the deployed position. The plunger pushes the injectable implant through the second lumen and out of the needle when the plunger assumes the deployed position.